Linger in Shadows (PlayStation 3) review

"Let me say that I had high hopes for this one. Advertised as a "new type of gaming experience," one would think from PSN and other internet sources that Linger in Shadows is the new Matrix, a mind blowing experience that can't be missed and "redefines gaming." This build up reminds me, now, in hindsight (a mistake I'll never be able to rectify) of this one time when I was offered an honorary position in a cult. I was promised that my mind would be forever enhanced, that I would "see and touch..."

Let me say that I had high hopes for this one. Advertised as a "new type of gaming experience," one would think from PSN and other internet sources that Linger in Shadows is the new Matrix, a mind blowing experience that can't be missed and "redefines gaming." This build up reminds me, now, in hindsight (a mistake I'll never be able to rectify) of this one time when I was offered an honorary position in a cult. I was promised that my mind would be forever enhanced, that I would "see and touch" truth, and that I would discover the answers to ALL the problems (not just my own, no no no... ALL the problems).

Instead I got some dank kool-aid in the porn infested dimly lit garage of a middle aged man who begged me to return on Sundays and join his LARP, which mostly played Vampire: The Masquerade.

Really... this time round, I should've known better. And I didn't even get kool-aid and a hurried hand job out of this one.

Linger in Shadows is essentially a demo reel, nothing more, nothing less. That's right, it's a video showing off the graphic capabilities of the PS3. Its big mind blowing addition to gaming that will "change it forever" is that it's interactive. But, hey... wait a minute... haven't games been interactive since, oh I don't know, their inception? A demo reel that has gameplay isn't really anything more than, er, a demo. A really short one without a story or a release date.

Maybe I'm not doing this justice. I'll describe the gameplay to you, and then you can decide for yourself how revolutionary this actually is. Basically, Linger in Shadows is a movie. A movie which you can pause (I'm not kidding when I say the game describes this as a fascinating and visionary addition to a movie). You can also move the camera and take screenshots. Or you can sometimes push buttons to change the objects in the movie, such as turning on lights or causing an object to spin around in one place. The game is serious when it comes to this interactivity. In fact, if you don't cause the right object to spin at the right time, or move the camera in the right direction to capture the right moment, the demo will rewind itself before the next scene and force you to rewatch the last minute or so of footage until you get it right.

So it is just a demo, then, right? Or, at least, a demo with a domination fetish.

Did I mention you have to pay to download this? I guess that's not so out of the ordinary, actually. I suppose if you wanted to buy an artbook you would pay for it. Of course, the artbook probably wouldn't profess to have the power to change your world forever.

Like most demo/art reels, the question that one ends up asking is whether they like the work presented. In the case of Linger in Shadows... I don't know. It's very artsy. But it's fairly cliche. You know, your usual artsy stuff... a conglomeration of images that don't make much sense together tied together by a series of pointless trophies with bizarre descriptions such as the following:

"SIGIL OF MOTION
Make the world tremble and the heavens shatter from within the shadows. The power to manipulate your environment has been unveiled and will prove essential in your struggles with nature."

Whoa man. Suddenly I feel like I have the solution to ALL the problems.

Maybe it's just that I don't have an HD television, but I didn't find the visuals to be very arresting. Getting back to cliches, at any given moment you'll recognize any number of familiar graphical entities. You have a big dark foggy thing, a big octopussy cyborg thing, a big grey city scape, and a dog. A basset hound, to be exact (and if you don't recognize the cliche there, you simply haven't been watching enough cyberpunk). There's also a cat and a bunch of statues and gears and... ah, hell, why am I even describing this? If you really want to see it, then go download it. But nothing annoys me more than false advertising, and this game has it in spades. So I want to set the record straight.

Linger in Shadows is a 6-minute demo movie, featuring what you may or may not consider to be cool visuals. It gives you the ability to play around with the camera and (to a very limited degree) some of the objects within the movie. I should add that this is nothing new. If you work for a game company, I'd expect your demo to have some degree of interactivity. In no way is Linger in Shadows the proverbial trip down the rabbit hole, not without the help of LSD and Kool Aid. It's useful for capturing some cool backgrounds to set as wallpapers on your desktop. Nothing more.

What bothers me is that this was such an obvious attempt to make an extra buck off the PS3 owner with overblown advertising. Next time, Sony, tell me what's really inside your package. Don't tell me you're going to give me cheese and then hand me Cheetos.

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